Not exactly about chess.

They said chess programs would never play better than grandmasters, but that has all changed....And then this got me thinking about…..

Science fiction writer Douglas Adams in his book Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy, says the earth is giant computer that is in the process of solving problems. One can imagine 6 billion humans as loosely interconnected parallel processors, that come up with useful ideas that spread throughout the network. The network then grows and builds on prior useful ideas, gradually understanding and solving our little problems one by one. (not our social problems, but our biological ones, such as aging, disease and how energy and matter work.)

One can see the inter-connected network of parallel human processors can be very successful, if there is diversity of ideas. This way useful ideas are discovered and used and not so useful ideas are dropped, and everybody knows it.

Now, it is possible that those human thinkers can begin to lose their diversity and creativity. When most of them stop thinking and start to believe they already live in the best of all possible worlds or that there is nothing new under the sun or no need for further improvement or all go on a permanent Caribbean cruise or accept as natural course of events then we have stagnation.

We can see that progress can be slowed down substantially because of a certain mindset or worldview.

Our current condition, is one of very slow progress, because of the mindset of most individuals. (Most too busy with survival, or money making or pleasure or boring work or pleasing their God.) In effect, we have a very small amount of the 6 billion human parallel networked minds that are focused on a widespread problem, aging and disease.

To speed up progress (if we believe in it), we need education that will free minds to explore assumptions about who we are and what we can do. Because with most religious beliefs, they give hope, security and tell us who we are, and as such, limit our big picture thinking to just one perspective.

On the upside, if we have a diversity of ideas, we have all these interconnected human minds creating sollutions to parts of puzzles. And it all becomes more and more integrated into a fuller understanding of ourselves and the universe. It seems so grand and full of possibilities and potential, it is a wonder we have not arrived at full understanding or reality sooner.

So then, the idea of technological singularity begins to make sense, that we will have an accelerated exponential explosion of knowledge and applications that will surely change us and the world.

Now, it is just a matter of staying alive, until the massive wave of innovation and creativity takes us to a place were we can start over.